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A Companion to
QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
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A Companion to
QUALITATIVE
RESEARCH
Edited by Uwe Flick, Ernst von Kardorff and Ines Steinke
Translated by Bryan Jenner
SAGE Publications
London ● Thousand Oaks● New Delhi
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Translation © 2004
This English edition first published 2004
Originally published in the series “rowohlts enzyklopädie” under the title
QUALITATIVE FORSHCHUNG– Ein Handbuch
Copyright © 2000 Rowohlt Ttaschenbuch Verlag GmbH, Reinbek bei Hamburg
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study,
or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and
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in any form, or by any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the
publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the
terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Inquiries concerning
reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.
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Contents
Notes on Editors and Contributors ix
Preface xii
PART 1 INTRODUCTION 1
1 What is Qualitative Research? An Introduction to the Field 3
Uwe Flick, Ernst von Kardorff and Ines Steinke
PART 2 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN ACTION: PARADIGMATIC RESEARCH STYLES 13
Introduction 15
2.1 Anselm Strauss 17
Bruno Hildenbrand
2.2 Erving Goffman 24
Herbert Willems
2.3 Harold Garfinkel and Harvey Sacks 29
Jörg R. Bergmann
2.4 Paul Willis and the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies 35
Rolf Lindner
2.5 Paul Parin, Fritz Morgenthaler and Goldy Parin-Matthèy 40
Maya Nadig and Johannes Reichmayr
2.6 Clifford Geertz 47
Stephan Wolff
2.7 Norman K. Denzin: Life in Transit 53
Yvonna S. Lincoln
2.8 Marie Jahoda 58
Christian Fleck
PART 3 THE THEORY OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH 63
Introduction 65
3A: BACKGROUND THEORIES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH 67
3.1 Phenomenological Life-world Analysis 67
Ronald Hitzler and Thomas S. Eberle
3.2 Ethnomethodology 72
Jörg R. Bergmann
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vi CONTENTS
3.3 Symbolic Interactionism 81
Norman K. Denzin
3.4 Constructivism 88
Uwe Flick
3.5 Social Scientific Hermeneutics 95
Hans-Georg Soeffner
3B: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAMMES 101
3.6 Qualitative Biographical Research 101
Winfried Marotzki
3.7 Qualitative Generation Research 108
Heinz Bude
3.8 Life-world Analysis in Ethnography 113
Anne Honer
3.9 Cultural Studies 118
Rainer Winter
3.10 Gender Studies 123
Regine Gildemeister
3.11 Organizational Analysis 129
Lutz von Rosenstiel
3.12 Qualitative Evaluation Research 137
Ernst von Kardorff
PART 4 METHODOLOGY AND QUALITATIVE RESEARCH 143
Introduction 145
4.1 Design and Process in Qualitative Research 146
Uwe Flick
4.2 Hypotheses and Prior Knowledge in Qualitative Research 153
Werner Meinefeld
4.3 Abduction, Deduction and Induction in Qualitative Research 159
Jo Reichertz
4.4 Selection Procedures, Sampling, Case Construction 165
Hans Merkens
4.5 Qualitative and Quantitative Methods: Not in Opposition 172
Udo Kelle and Christian Erzberger
4.6 Triangulation in Qualitative Research 178
Uwe Flick
4.7 Quality Criteria in Qualitative Research 184
Ines Steinke
PART 5 DOING QUALITATIVE RESEARCH 191
Introduction 193
5A: ENTERING THE FIELD 195
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CONTENTS vii
5.1 Ways into the Field and their Variants 195
Stephan Wolff
5B: COLLECTING VERBAL DATA 203
5.2 Qualitative Interviews: An Overview 203
Christel Hopf
5.3 Interviewing as an Activity 209
Harry Hermanns
5.4 Group Discussions and Focus Groups 214
Ralf Bohnsack
5C: OBSERVING PROCESSES AND ACTIVITIES 222
5.5 Field Observation and Ethnography 222
Christian Lüders
5.6 Photography as Social Science Data 231
Douglas Harper
5.7 Reading Film: Using Films and Videos as Empirical
Social Science Material 237
Norman K. Denzin
5.8 Electronic Process Data and Analysis 243
Jörg R. Bergmann and Christoph Meier
5D: ANALYSIS, INTERPRETATION AND PRESENTATION 248
5.9 The Transcription of Conversations 248
Sabine Kowal and Daniel C. O’Connell
5.10 The Analysis of Semi-structured Interviews 253
Christiane Schmidt
5.11 The Analysis of Narrative-biographical Interviews 259
Gabriele Rosenthal and Wolfram Fischer-Rosenthal
5.12 Qualitative Content Analysis 266
Philipp Mayring
5.13 Theoretical Coding: Text Analysis in Grounded Theory 270
Andreas Böhm
5.14 Computer-assisted Analysis of Qualitative Data 276
Udo Kelle
5.15 Analysis of Documents and Records 284
Stephan Wolff
5.16 Objective Hermeneutics and Hermeneutic Sociology of Knowledge 290
Jo Reichertz
5.17 Conversation Analysis 296
Jörg R. Bergmann
5.18 Genre Analysis 303
Hubert Knoblauch and Thomas Luckmann
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5.19 Discourse analysis 308
Ian Parker
5.20 Deep-structure Hermeneutics 313
Hans-Dieter König
5.21 The Art of Interpretation 321
Heinz Bude
5.22 The Presentation of Qualitative Research 326
Eduard Matt
PART 6 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN CONTEXT 331
Introduction 333
6A: THE USE OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH 334
6.1 Research Ethics and Qualitative Research 334
Christel Hopf
6.2 Teaching Qualitative Research 340
Uwe Flick and Martin Bauer
6.3 Utilization of Qualitative Research 349
Ernst von Kardorff
6B: THE FUTURE AND CHALLENGES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH 354
6.4 The Future Prospects of Qualitative Research 354
Hubert Knoblauch
6.5 The Challenges of Qualitative Research 359
Christian Lüders
6.6 The Art of Procedure, Methodological Innovation and
Theory-formation in Qualitative Research 365
Alexandre Métraux
PART 7 RESOURCES 371
7.1 Resources for Qualitative Researchers 373
Heike Ohlbrecht
References 381
Author Index 421
Subject Index 428
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Notes on Editors and Contributors
EDITORS
Uwe Flick, is Professor of Empirical Social and Nursing Research (Qualitative Methods) at the Alice Salomon
University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, Germany and Adjunct Professor at the Memorial University of
Newfoundland at St. John’s, Canada. Research interests are qualitative methods, social representations and
health. He is author of several books and articles on qualitative research including An Introduction to
Qualitative Research (Sage, Second edition, 2002) and The Psychology of the Social (Cambridge University
Press, 1998).
Ernst von Kardorff, is Professor of the sociology of rehabilitation at Humboldt University in Berlin. Research
interests are living and coping with chronic illness, the role of partners and volunteer organizations and quali-
tative methods. Publications include, with C. Schönberger, Mit dem, kranken Partner leben(Living with a Chronically
Ill Partner) (Opladen, 2003).
Ines Steinke, Dr. Phil. works in industry in areas such as market- and marketing psychology and usability and
design-management research and teaching in qualitative research, general psychology and youth research.
Publications include: Kriterien qualitativer Forschung. Ansätze zur Bewertung qualitativ-empirijscher Sozial-
forschung (Criteria of Qualitative Research: Approaches for Assessing Qualitative-Empirical Social Research)
(Weinheim, 1999).
CONTRIBUTORS
Bauer, Martin, Ph.D., born 1959, Lecturer, Department of Social Psychology and Methodology Institute,
London School of Economics. Research interests: New technologies, qualitative methods, social representa-
tions, resistance in social processes.
Bergmann, Jörg R., Prof. Dr., Dipl.-Psych., born 1946, University of Bielefeld, Faculty of Sociology. Research
interests: Qualitative methods, new media, communication in everyday life and in complex work situations.
Böhm, Andreas, Dr. phil., born 1955, Federal Office of Health, Brandenburg. Research interests:
Epidemiology, children’s health, qualitative methods.
Bohnsack, Ralf, Prof. Dr. rer. soz., Dr. phil. habil, Dipl. Soz., born 1948, Free University of Berlin, Faculty of
Education and Psychology. Research interests: Qualitative methods, sociology of knowledge, youth research,
deviance.
Bude, Heinz, Prof. Dr. phil., born 1954, University of Kassel and Hamburg Institute of Social Research.
Research interests: Research on generations, exclusion and entrepreneurs.
Denzin, Norman K., Prof., Ph.D., born 1941, College of Communications Scholar, Distinguished Research
Professor of Communications, Sociology, Cinema Studies and Humanities, University of Illinois, Institute of
Communications Research. Research interests: Cultural studies, interpretative research, media and ethnic
groups.
Eberle, Thomas S., Prof. Dr., born 1950, Sociological Seminar, University of St Gallen (Switzerland).
Research interests: Phenomenological sociology, sociology of knowledge, sociology of culture.
